Love to travel but would rather leave a shoe footprint than a carbon one?

Car-Free Happy Hours (well, without motors, it's two and a half hours) began in October in order to raise awareness of alternate and environmentally friendly forms of transportation, such as bicycling, walking and public transit. Coordinator Brent Tinnell has hosted several of these gatherings in Old Louisville, downtown and in Crescent Hill, and last Tuesday he brought it to the Monkey Wrench in the Highlands.

"It was kind of an idea I had in mind with the Coalition for Advancement of Regional Transportation (CART)," says Tinnell, who was waiting for a bus when I reached him. "We wanted to have a time for pedestrians and transit users and bicyclists to get together and get to know each other and talk about different issues." Having the event at different locales has helped mix things up while introducing different groups of people to one another. Tinnell says that even though the weather typically has been unfavorable for nonmotorists, he's optimistic about the Highlands gathering: "The weather's usually been rainy or cold but we still manage to get at least a dozen people and most of them are on bicycles."

It was not just a good time for all, but informative too. Speakers from the Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency (KIPDA) discussed bike pooling to work, which involves finding people who live close to you and riding together. Also, Amanda Fuller, the new director of Bicycling for Louisville,was on hand.

For details on the next Car-Free Happy Hours, call Brent Tinnell at 502-619-4352.